Bookman's Tale (Lovett) - Book Reviews

Book ReviewsThe Bookman’s Tale has plenty of richness to offer….Daring intricacy.Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Bard is back in this rollicking literary mystery….This novel has something for everyone: William Shakespeare, a love story, murder and even a secret tunnel.Minneapolis Star Tribune

All too good to resist….The Bookman’s Tale is a book about books, written for lovers of books.Fayetteville Observer

Lovett’s debut is a century-spanning web of literary mystery that ensnares American Peter Byerly, a rare bookseller.... Peter stumbles into the argument about the authorship of Shakespeare’s work.... As [he] continues his sleuthing, he finds himself a potential suspect in a murder investigation.Publishers Weekly

(Starred review.) An American antiquarian bookseller now living in England...discovers, in an 18th-century book about Shakespeare forgeries, a Victorian miniature portrait of a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to his late wife. His research...leads Peter on a dangerous quest to prove the book's authenticity.... [A] gripping literary mystery that is compulsively readable until the thrilling end. —Katie Lawrence, ChicagoLibrary Journal

Fans of mysteries, of love stories, and of rare books will all find moments in Lovett’s novel to treasure.Booklist

A pleasurably escapist trans-Atlantic mystery is intricately layered with plots, murders, feuds, romances, forgeries....all centered on the book that supposedly inspired Shakespeare's play A Winter's Tale.... Did Shakespeare really write his plays or not?... A cheerily old-fashioned entertainment. Kirkus Reviews